oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. >> good morning. i'm chris jansing. another political firestorm is growing, forcing mitt romney and his supporters to explain comments from indiana senate candidate richard mourdock. again, it's about women and abortion, comments that brought a stronger view from president obama. let me remind you first exactly what mourdock said. >> i struggled with it myself

for a long time, but i came to realize life is that gift from god, and i think even when life begins in the horrible situation of rape that it is something that god intended to happen. >> so in the aftermath the president mentioned the fight for women's health just last hour at a rally in florida and here he was last night on "the tonight show." >> rape is rape. it is a crime. and so these distinctions about rape don't make too much sense to me. don't make any sense to me. >> in a press conference yesterday mourdock did not apologize for what he said, but said his words were misinterpreted. >> so many people mistook, twisted, came to misunderstand the points that i was trying to make. >> but the obama campaign wants to remind voters that with this new video that mitt romney supports richard mourdock and,

in fact, he even cut a tv ad in support of him. i want to bring in ann cornblut, politics editor for "the washington post," perry bacon is the political editor for the grillo. good morning. >> good morning. >> the romney campaign released this statement yesterday when all of this was gloe blowing up, quote, governor romney disagrees with richard mourdock and mr. mourdock's comments do not reflect governor romney's views. we disagree on the policy regarding exceptions for rape and incest, but still support him. now they have not, however, pulled this ad. >> this fall i'm supporting richard mourdock for senate. as state treasurer richard worked with governor daniels to balance the budget. there's so much at stake, i hope you'll join me in supporting richard mourdock for u.s. senate. >> and the campaign says they have not asked him to pull the ad. is that a mixed message? >> potentially, although i think some of what we saw yesterday

was reporting that it would have drawn more attention to the campaign and to their differences if they asked him to withdraw the ad and then he refused to do so. so i think their hope is that they've made their statement and they'll try to move on especially because this is not a state that romney himself is contesting. it looks like it will go to him regardless. >> republicans are asking richard mourdock to apologize. kelly was supposed to do a fund-raising event with him, now she's not. let me just play a little bit about what some of those folks are saying. >> what he said was kind of crazy, but having said that, this election for president is not about that. >> it depends on what he does. if he apologizes and says he misspoke and he was wrong and he asks people to forgive him then obviously, i would be the first -- you know, as i said i'm not sure how big the mistakes i have made. you know, in the years i made a few. >> but mccain is not withdrawing

his support yet. so perry, is this going to impact the support for president bringing up the conversations that republicans want to put to rest. >> any time we're talking about abortion and not talking about the economy is a bad day for mitt romney. the position mourdock says that abortion should never be allow side opposed by 90% of americans. almost every american supports abortion and 90% of them in some cases, at least. so it's on the extremely conservative side and highlights an issue where romney is not with the majority of americans are because most americans are for abortion rights particularly in an election where women are the swing vote right now and they're the vote where both parties are focused on and talking about abortion is not the best way to appeal to women for romney. >> just talking about how the news conference with richard mourdock went down. let me play a clip because he kept getting asked follow-up questions by members of the

press. >> do you believe that if the presidency -- god's intend -- that's what i heard you say, so i guess i thought you meant that god intended a pregnancy. >> i believe god controls the universe. i don't think that i don't think biology controls it. i think god controls the universe. >> in the context of the campaign there is a new a.p. poll that says beckly mitt romney has closed the gender gap with women 47-47, although female likely voters, 55% say obama would make the right decisions on women's issues compared to 41% for mitt romney, but does this have the potential to impact women and we know one of the key swing groups now and those small group of undecided voters are unmarried women.

>> i mean, i think the potential is there and his underlying position that he opposes abortion rights in all cases except for the life of the mother is not a terribly inconsistent position, obviously the wording that came out during the debate was problematic for him and two wrongs don't make a right and we've heard other republicans have different iterations of this policy, then i'm not sure there were that many women waiting to make their decision on the distinction between republicans who oppose legalized abortion in cases of rape and incest and those who just oppose it the rest of the time so i'm not sure there will be that big impact and given that romney has seemed to do better among women and i know there are different numbers out there and some suggesting that obama's still holding his own and the a.p. poll that he's not. i think there are other issues and fundamentally the economy that are really at stake here, and that's what we keep hearing

women say, and women who are undecided and women leaning toward romney and it is too hard to say they'll come back from the indiana race. >> i want to say good morning to charlie rangel. do you think he's come far enough or do you think he should pull his support for richard mourdock. >> i can't imagine if i was supporting somebody that they came up with this bizarre thought that someone was the victim of the rape felt compelled and restricted by law to have that child, i would have to really think of who am i endorsing? it's outrageous to be associated with someone that feels this -- this weird about something and when mourdock says that he's wrestled with the question. how do you wrestle with a question with what a woman has to go through.

first a rape which is horrendous enough which i don't see how a man can imagine the pain, but for her husband or for her father to say that you have to give birth to a child as a result of it and the federal government saying that if you don't, you're committing a crime it's too bizarre for any person especially someone running for president to be in any way connected with that person. >> do you think, congressman, in the larger context, obviously, voters there will take a look at this, but in the larger context of renewing this conversation about what democrats have called the war on women about the question of who gets to control reproductive rights. does this have the potential by bringing that back into the daily conversation, to have an impact in these closing days of the campaign? >> of course, i'm not a woman and i'm not arrogant enough to know what a woman would be thinking about this, but i would assume that they would look at this person, the president and

says what are your views about me? what are your concerns about me, about my daughter and about women, generally and how do you explain it me your association to this person whose obvious religious beliefs have caused a democr demented thought and i don't think anyone can say they're for women and be associated with this kind of thought. >> different polls show different things with the women. this new a.p. poll shows it dead even although the president in that poll was closing the gap with wen and there have been several polls if not dead even that the poll -- that the gap is getting smaller, that mitt romney has been gaining some support among women. what do you think is going on there? is it the economic issue? is the president starting to lose the economic argument? >> i don't know why, if you look at what the president's

connection is especially leadbetter where the candidate for president his disassociated himself in terms of wages that women should have especially when you talk about preconditions with insurance companies doing that. when you talk about the plight that women have had as well as minorities and to see the fairness and the concepts of which the obama program is going through, i can see why there was this overwhelming gap. i, as a man, feel embarrassed say i cannot see how possibly a woman can endorse him on the mourdock issue that he can't find the words to be eloquent enough to disassociate himself from this type of person because no person's religion is strong enough to tell them that they're going to super impose their ideas on the entire population, and i cannot do anything, but

feel the outrage that i would have if i endorsed the candidate and they were spreading this type of insane idea of the pain that a woman and a child, perhaps, would have to go through as a result of me federalizing a law, criminalizing them for being a victim. >> congressman carharlie rangel it's great to have you here in the studio. >> thank you for having me. you have richard mourdock and before that was todd aiken and here was joe scarborough's take on this this morning. >> he's not alone. you have other republicans out there saying the craziest and you're saying, what goes through their mind? do they go, you know what i want to be when i grow up? the next todd aiken. they're morons! >> perry, you know when you again, look at this in the larger context of the narrative that's been going on, does -- do

you think that this is something that is worthy of conversation or are we talking about the wrong things altogether? >> this is certainly worthy of conversation and one of the things is todd aiken has geffen away one republican senate seat and now mourdock can officially lose ago senate seat they were counting on. that alone is important. also as we noted, obama needs to win women by ten points and he'll win the election overall and he needs to have an advantage among women voters and it moves and we have 1 million indecided voters and if it moves 1,000, 10,000 people and it is such a close election. >> speaking of people that are out there, one of the things that joe and mika were talking about and this bust of an announcement from donald trump who said you give $1 million to the president who released his college transcript and here was the president on leno last night. >> this all dates back to when

we were growing up together in kenya. ♪ >> we had constant run-ins on the soccer field. he wasn't very good. >> yea. >> perfect way to handle it? just a little bit of humor? >> and the president has sort of perfected the art of needling donald trump. this isn't the first time, every time -- during the birth certificate flaps, he had funny jokes at the white house correspondents dinner, so it's just more from the president on that. it was pretty funny. >> it is. ann cornblut, perry bacon, good to see boeing of you. thank you. >> the words, the body language and all of the reporting is consistent. president obama and governor romney don't seem to like each other very much. brian williams who has been on the campaign trail with the president asked him, is that true? >> you know, i think when you're

candidates that you -- and you haven't really interacted before you can't say that you've got a real relationship. john mccain i knew because i'd served with him in the senate, but i think if you look at george bush and john kerry or george bush and al gore, first president bush and bill clinton i don't think anybody would say that while you were in the middle of a campaign that you felt deep affection for the other guy because, look, you're fighting for competing visions. >> you can see much more of brian's conversation with the president tonight on "rock center." where others fail, droid powers through.

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another first for president obama. just after 5:00 p.m. today in chicago, he will be the first president to cast his vote early. so far more than 3 million americans have voted early in

the 35 states that allow early voting including the key state of ohio and a new time poll shows that president obama is leading mitt romney among ohio voters who already voted or planned to vote 49-44%. joining me now contributing writer for roll call, nathan gonzalez and also for the roth political report. good to see you. good morning. >> thanks for having me on. >> the time poll shows president obama has a two to one advantage among those who already voted in ohio 60% to 30%. now republicans always assume democrats would have the advantage in early voting, but do these results tell us something, anything significant about the state of ohio? >> think that's part of the problem. i think it is a data point worth taking in as we all try to figure out what's going on, but i'm not sure if it's predicted value. i get the feeling that sometimes we place too much emphasis for early voting and a vote cast

today matters just as much as the vote cast on november 6th. another reason why i pause on the predicted value of early voting is because this is still a fairly new phenomena. we've had absentee and early voting before, but in terms of the campaign's emphasis on getting out the early vote, we're still two or three presidential cycles into that emphasis and we're not sure if it's just getting some of those votes you already knew you had in the bank early or if it's reaching a margin that is -- mitt romney can't cross on election day. >> to that point, the pew center on the states estimates as many as 35% of all votes will come in this year before election day. the early voting information center puts it even higher at 40%. both will be up from the 30% to four years ago. so the obama team in particular has talked about whether that could be a fire wall and what we're suggesting is we may be some time, maybe even more from

really knowing how that works. >> i think that it would be a better fire wall if early voting would have started in september when the president was doing better, but now that the early voting started when after the first presidential debate which was i think changed at least the frame of the election, it's true that once those early votes are cast they can't go back to change them, so next friday morning when the new jobs numbers come out those votes -- those voters won't have an opportunity to change their decision based on whether they're good or bad so there's an advantage for the parties, but it's not sure whether it will tell us who will win on election day. >> yea. get it in the bank. do we have a good sense right now of what kind of impact early voting which is broader than it has been is having on both campaigns in terms of their strategy? >> i think both campaigns, they're not going for the base. they're not trying to turn out

the hard core voters because they know that they're going to be there whether it's now or in a week and a half. but they are trying to target the softer voters and those who can make up their mind now and whatever message they need to do to convince them, then those are the voters they would treasure and have because they can't change their mind if the news of the day changes in the final week. >> nathan gonzalez, thanks so much for coming on? thank you. >> former secretary of state colin powell, a republican, is announcing that he will vote for president obama. this morning on cbs, powell said the economy is coming back and the president has taken the country out of war and powell does not want to see the president's health care plan thrown out. meantime "the detroit news" is endorsing governor romney saying, quote, president barack obama came in 2009 riding a wave of hope and change and unfortunately, he has not delivered and romney offers the best hope of changing the nation's fate.

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to politics now where the fbi is investigating a case of voter intimidation in florida. nbc news has learned between 50 and 100 bogus letters were sent to voters in 28 counties, questioning their citizenship and eligibility to vote saying they could face criminal charges. now it's not clear who sent the letters. they have a seattle postmark. the reverend jesse jackson was arrested in a factory protesting outside of freeport supporting workers there. the plant is scheduled to close the day before the election. sensata is partially owned by bain capital which is mitt romney's old firm. you have to hear how joe biden dealt with a crying baby in a campaign event in ohio. they have been so tied -- >> i don't blame that baby for

crying. you know what? she just realized what it means if romney gets elected. god love her. hi, baby. how are you? it's okay. he's not going to get elected. you're going to be okay. >> and what's better than katy perry performing at one of your rallies? maybe her outfit. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> looks like skin-tight white latex, right? complete with the ballot filled in for president obama, the president called her a wonderful young lady during the rally. >> and the discovery channel is running a show flipping the white house when one president leaves and another comes in, james baker, desiree rogers and the former white house central secretary secretary and if you read only one thing this morning, my must-read is from

the cover of "time" magazine, lincoln what barack obama and mitt romney can learn from the master politician of 1862. i'm seeing the movie tonight based on the great book "team of rivals," yes, don, review to come, it's at facebook/jansingco. to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. and bp's also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger.

yeah. then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. ok. [ voice of dennis ] silence. are you in good hands? this morning it's not just the presidential campaign that's tightening and there are ten senate seats that are swinging their way, they're making last-minute appeals for the battle of control of the senate. let me bring campaign chairman, former adviser to four presidents and nbc political analyst and former dnc communications director karen finnegan. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> republicans still need to win eight of the nine closest races to get the 51-seat majority. how close do you sense it is out there and do you think the

closeness of the presidential race is driving some of these close senate races? >> i think it's very close and i do feel that the president strives for it. i think what we've seen in the past week since the debate started it's really helped in some of these states. for example, in virginia, we've seen george allen who was a little bit behind jump out ahead now of tim cane and i think george allen is in great shape in virginia, and i will say this, too. i think it's much more likely to be in control of the senate if they were to win the presidency and i think we'll control the senate. >> karen, should democrats be worried that they should be close with 12 days to go. >> the latest poll i've seen, gop senate candidates and the key states, there hasn't been much movement and they're maintaining their lead. i'm not sure i agree with the premise, but you always want to be concerned and you want to

make sure that they're doing everything we can to turn the vote out and you were talking about the early things that the obama campaign is doing and those things will also benefit a number of our senate candidates. >> well, republicans have stubbed their toe, shall we say on the whole abortion issue and after these comments from indiana senate candidate richard mourdock. do you think that this could hurt them? one of the things that he had to say was i think that the republicans are not going to bail on me either financially or in terms of endorsements because this is a critical state in terms of the battle of the senate. is he right? >> here's what i think. i think when his comments were enforcing it and i totally disagree with them and vehemently disagree with them and so does every major figure in the party. however, one mistake does not a senate candidate do. what i think is the voters at hoosier state will say who can

best create jobs and control the deficit and you have a senate that has not passed the budget in three years and if he's elected and he'll go with harry reid and he'll have more of the same and we're not going have a balanced budget, and i think people will focus on that. overall, i think what we are going to be focused on overall is the economy, the creation of jobs and who can help get this country moving again. >> i can hear you, karen, chomping at the bit. >> 30% and 40% of women, women voters and these were in battleground states. abortion is the top voting issue for them, not the economy. access to abortion which women see as an economic issue and as a civil rights issue and those women are not likely going to vote for republican candidates who say, talk about rape in the way that we've heard it discussed and it also exposes the republican party more broadly to the electorate when you've got not just murdoch.

it's aiken and you have others who are making these comments and i do think there's damage there. >> you know what? just generally, i was talking to congressman rangel about this earlier. why do you think that the president does not have as big an advantage as he did at one point with the women's vote? >> i actually think there are a number of factors and i don't want agree with the momentum narrative that romney has so much momentum as people say. the president and most of the dynamics of the race have pretty much stayed the same and i think you will see the president break away and the one thing i want to say about the early vote and why it's important is remember that early voters, that's not the universe of people that will vote on election day and sporadic voters who may not even vote and if you look in indiana, joe donelly is moving and even in connecticut where republicans like to talk about linda mcmahon, she's trying to convince voters that they can split the ticket.

murphy is up, but she's having to wiggle her way closer to obama to do better in that state. so i think the underpinnings and the premise on some of this, i disagree with. >> fred, if you look at the analysis by most people who sit up nights and crunch the numbers and i'm sure there were times when you did that as well, you would have to say, would you not that the electoral map still favors the president. >> the electoral map is difficult because of ohio where we're still a little bit behind, and i think we can win ohio and win without ohio. >> i think the momentum changed in the debate and i think people for the first time saw an unfiltered version of mitt romney and saw him as a potential president. unfiltered by any media and any attack ads and they saw someone who was really engaged and could be president and that in turn is what lifted the senate races. i think on the presidency, if he win, we're going to control the senate.

i agree that the women's vote is very critical, but if you look at what's happened in the women's vote, they're moving for romney and the gap is being closed and romney is a compelling argument and the creation of jobs and get this economy moving again and he's done it before. >> simultaneously, the men are voting in favor of the president. >> i would just say that the numbers don't bear that out that since the debates we've not seen evidence that romney has coattails. again, in connecticut, linda mcmahon is getting herself closer to the president to do better. most all of our candidates in the key states are still doing well either tied or up, so again, i don't think the numbers are bearing out this concept that somehow mitt romney has these golden coattails. the only reason mitt romney doesn't have the guts to distance himself from murdoch is because he needs that state and because they do need that vote in the senate and it's a cowardly move to not be able to stand up and say i think i'm going to pull my endorsement of somebody who would speak like

that which is a level of desperation if you ask me. >> you know, it's about the comments, number one and number two. >> yes, he has. his spokesperson did it and he has his ad that endorses mourdock taken down. >> we have to let that be the last word. thank you both. great to see you. meantime, new numbers just in shows a boost for governor romney. the romney campaign says almost $112 million were raised between october 1st and the 17th and that was from both the campaign and the rnc. also today the man charged with terrorism in the benghazi consulate attack is saying through his lawyer that he's innocent. he was just charged this week. meantime, another suspect in the attack was killed in cairo yesterday when police came to his home after getting a report of a suspicious person. >> the pakistani team recovering from being shot in the head by the taliban is expected to be

reunited with her family today. sources said malala yousef za's family is, and despite threats against her she will return to pakistan. a 17-year-old boy suspected of killing 10-year-old jessica ridgway is due in court this morning. the district attorney says he plans to try the teen as an adult. austin reed sigg was arrested yesterday. the a.p. reports his mother called police and her son turned himself in. authorities believe sigg also tried to abduct a 22-year-old jogger back in may. well, the east coast could be in for a whopper of a storm that for forecasters has the potential to cause $1 billion worth of damage. hurricane sandet and blast of arctic air from the north are expected to collide on sunday and hammer the east coast with heavy winds, rain, flooding, even snow. with leaves still on many of the trees, power outages could last

until election day. some scientists are comparing it to the perfect storm. remember that in new england, 1991. it's already killed two people in the caribbean. a boost in pay for holiday workers. cn cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money and there is a new careerbuilder survey. >> the results are quite good, chris. the survey says this hol say shopping season is shaping up for one that holds significant opportunities that we've seen in recent years. this year 36% of retailers indicated they plan to hire extra help for the holidays and that's a strong jump from 29% last year and also a 62% indicated they expected to pay at least $10 per hour and that is up from 53% last year and 22% indicated they would pay at least $16, and that is a big improvement. respondents also indicated some of the new hires will be offered full time, permanent positions and that, of course, is the holy

grail, right? that's a gain of nine percentage point from 2011. >> and speaking of shopping, there is a startling analysis on the impact of jc penney, they tried to change their pricing strategy. >> yea. what they're doing now and while they're being careful not to use their coupon, the $10 gift showed that jc penney is giving customers finally what they like and that is a deal because as you mentioned about their new strategy from earlier of this yore, sin the first quarter they've been fighting a losing battle in the promotional strategy they had of giving shoppers every day low pricing and it was called the fair and square strategy and it wasn't as successful as they'd hoped and according to the equity index for women's clothing and it's a very competitive segment and jc penney share of female customers shrunk 13%. so we'll see if the $10 gift card works this holiday season. >> mandy drury, thank you. speaking of getting paid.

"forbes" is out with the list of the top-earning celebrity. these are those who are no longer with us. number five, bob marley, $17 million. charles schultz of peanuts fame, $25 million, and michael jackson made $145 million posthumously and look at number one, elizabeth taylor who has a best-selling perfume among other things $210 million.

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the importance of main takening strategies for maintaining wet loss and control. >> celebrities are coming on to the political battlefield to support the center for reproductive rights' new draw the line campaign. >> what if you could stop a terrible injustice from happening in one woman's life? >> what if you could change the lives, the future, the world for millions of women across the globe? >> every day. >> every day. >> every day governments all over the world including the united states, deny millions of women with their fundamental reproductive rights. >> joining me now is the president and ceo of the center for reproductive rights nancy norfolk and actress and singer odd ra mcdonald who was participating in draw the line. good to have you both here. i know you're fired up about this, nancy, why this, why now? >> we thought the center of reproductive rights works around the u.s. and around the world to make sure it guarantees fundamental rights and we're in the courts and legislatures and we realized it was time to turn

up the volume and make sure the public comes forward to talk about the fundamental rights they want to see ensured. we need people to stand up for the rights that are theirs and say, hey, enough. in the united states of the government violating women's reproductive rights. >> and there certainly has been a lot in the presidential discourse. why did you get involved. your sister called you and said you should do this. >> it was interesting because right before they released the video and my sister said hey, there's this draw the line campaign starting and you have twitter followers, tweet about this, and i wrote her back and said i actually am involved. >> why did you get involved? >> i'm a mother, and i -- for me i grew up taking my reproductive rights taken for granted and people are trying to take them away from us frightened me for my child and for our future

generations and it is a basic right and all of a sudden we're strong fight for women's rights in a way we didn't have to even 20 years ago and so it seemed important. >> it's been interesting that it's gotten political traction especially some of the comments made by mourdock and aiken that there are people on the right who are saying that women are being misrepresented. take a listen to former john mccain adviser mike fufry when he was on "meet the press" this past sunday. >> it always amazes me that there's no such thing in the world as a pro-life woman. we never talk about them and a lot of pro-choice women are because they know his priority will be the economy. i listen to this and this is the democratic line and i closed my eyes because i worked for romney, and i imagine women who run the place throwing stuff at the tv. >> the most important issue for women is the economy and this is kind of a smoke screen. what do you say to that?

>> well, what i say to that is it would be nice to get reproductive rights out of politics because the thing is we shouldn't have politicians talking about what kind of reproductive health care women can access. it should not be the case that every election we're worried about what's going to happen the day after. we don't worry about our first amendment rights going there the day after election and we don't talk about what we worship, but we worry are our doctors going to be there? can they provide the full range of reproductive services? politicians can come and go, but reproductive rights shouldn't come and go. i think this issue should be out of politics. >> do you agree with that? >> i absolutely agree and i think reproductive rights are an economic issue as far as women are concerned. in terms of, yes, there are things that happen within planned parenthood and also you're talking about cancer screenings and preventative health care and contraception so that you can prevent unwanted pregnancies and things like that. those are very much economic

issues for women and they're just as important and we need to be able to have our own autonomy to be able to decide what it is that we want to do with our bodies and ourselves. >> and the fact, though, it is the political season and there's a lot of stuff out there, a lot of videos out there. i'm just curious what kind of reaction you've been getting. >> oh, very positive from all the people that i know that have seen this particular vittdeo an almost everyone i've spoken to and tweeted to has immediately moved on and signed and passed it on and facebooked it on. >> and you were hope for example 100,000 signatures. >> bee thought 100,000 in a hundred days and we thought in the first few days and up to 160,000 and we'll keep on going because we want to make sure that we have the support ready for our policymakers when they are stamping on our rights again. >> it's women on both sides of the aisle. it's women in general, but it's not just democrats and it's republicans, democrats,

independents and everybody. >> and men. >> men are signing the bill and going to draw the line. >> nancy norfolk, odd ra mcdonald, thank you for coming on the program. today's tweet of the day comes from someone truly fed up with donnal trump. barbara boxer writes i will give $50 to the charity of donald trump's choice if he stops trying to make this election about himself. who's with me? about once a month. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and it's not just these owners giving the volt high praise. volt received the j.d. power and associates appeal award two years in a row. ♪

>> president obama's whirlwind battleground blitz continues. he was in tampa, florida, last hour. >> and if you're willing to work with me and knock on some doors with me, make some phone calls with me, vote for me, we'll win in county again, we'll win florida again and we'll win this election again.

richard hughey is here with a look at the closer fight for florida and there's none bigger. 29 electoral votes. >> big, big, here, chris. it has more say in who becomes president than ever before and it's no doubt that florida has led for most of the election and activity on the ground, as well. the obama campaign has visited 46 times since june according to the washington post, the first lady a big part of that. field offices continue to grow there, now 104. the romney campaign has made 52 visits and ann romney has made a dozen of those, but his field offices are half obama's at 48. here's how it works on a path to victory based on the the toss-up state map. if romney wins florida, he doesn't need ohio, new hampshire or iowa to reach 270 to win. for obama it's much simpler, winning florida means winning the election. florida is like four states in one.

central florida with four key swing counties along i-4 will probably be the decider this year. palm beach counties expected to go obama and miami-dade with strong cuban-american influence traditionally has gone red. balancing that out what's called the president's latino fire wall with almost 1 in 4 being latino and a recent poll shows they're more enthusiast nick that election and that's 61% of latinos compared to 71 nationally according to latino decisions, but including all groups here, romney is slightly ahead and the real clear average he's ahead by two percentage points and the first debate in the beginning of october and as tim russert told us, down to the wire, it's florida, florida, florida. >> and obviously, the ground game is so important that partly because of that big latino population, big push for voter registration. where does it stand? >> up to july, the year up to

july, democrats were behind by 10 to 1 in increasing their voter registration roles compared to last election, but now that we have all of the numbers and almost all of them, 500,000 more democrats are registered than republicans. >> richard louie, thank you so much. i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next. their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ] [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. what's more beautifultwo covergirls!rl? that's right, get two miracles in one product. covergirl makeup, and olay advanced hydrating serum. it's tone rehab 2-in-1 foundation. one pump, covers spots, lines, and wrinkles. and one bottle helps improve skin tone over time. that's what i was supposed to say now. well, no one can understand you. ♪ tone rehab 2-in-1 foundation from easy -- breezy -- beautiful... covergirl! covergirl!

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flavor, meet food. it's time for swanson flavor boost. concentrated broth in easy to use packets. mix it into skillet dishes, for an instant dose of... hell-o! [ female announcer ] get recipes at flavorboost.com. >> hi, everybody. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. 12 days to go and a frenzied sprint to the finish and the hurdle to the end finding both presidential candidates racing through critical swing states today. for romney the focus is ohio, oh ohio, ohio. he will speak any minute in his campaign in since nattet and first of three stops in the buckeye straight. president obama will be on day two of the battleground, unlike anything he's done before. after appearing with katy perry in front of a crowdf